Environmental Policies in the Lula Era: Accomplishments and Contradictions

In the last few decades, environment has become a contentious theme in Brazil’s national politics. The country’s environmental challenges are directly linked to its vibrant economic growth, which relies on primary industry with significant and growing energy demands. The increasing share of commodities in export value, from 23 percent in 2000 to 46.7 percent in 2012, has driven the so- called ‘ re- primarization’ of the economy (Figure 10.1). The national development program (Growth Acceleration Program), based on the expansion of agricultural land, energy production and infrastructure, has sparked harsh criticisms from civil society organizations and environmentalists regarding negative impacts such as biodiversity loss, erosion of ecosystem services and social disruptions (Fearnside, 2006; Zhouri and Laschefski, 2010). At the same time, the country hosts approximately 65 percent of a mega-biodiversity biome and important carbon sink, which makes land cover change a key environmental concern at the global scale. Pressured by its uncomfortable position as one of the top greenhouse gas (GHG) emitters, mostly from deforestation and land use (La Rovere et al., 2013), the government faces major conflict between carbon mitigation policies and the national development agenda, based on expansion of extractive industries.